Friday, 29 April 2011

New paintings, drawings and films by Laurence Owen go on show at 20 Hoxton Square next week.

My family and other tragedies

oil on canvas

2011

His work is part creepy, part pretty - really bright sugary colours and disjointed sections and strange outlines.

Obby Orse

ink on paper

2011

The works in the show are quite various - some of the paintings have a glowing white neon haze... some have odd floating lights in them... some show modular little dystopias, made to look all static and childlike. Plus there are cut-up films. And a whole wall of drawn postcards.

Saturday, 23 April 2011

He started as a door whore at Heaven in the 80s before becoming a Buffalo stylist and giving Bjork her grungy look on Debut. He's made accessories for John Galliano at Christian Dior and for Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons, as well as for younger East End designers Gareth Pugh and Louise Gray.

Back in the day he used to collect rubbish from the banks of the Thames to make into jewellery, when the Docklands were free of skyscrapers and full of apocalyptic-looking junkyards and squatted warehouses.

He's had a studio on Kingsland Road since wayy back when, and I interviewed him about ye olde days of Dalston for this thesis I'm writing. He had a twinkle in his eye and a tale or two to tell... which I'm keeping secret for now, but I just wanted to share this touching description he gave of what it was like to know the departed film maker Derek Jarman:

"When I first moved to London I met Derek and for me he was always… that was a kind of college, because what Derek didn’t know about music or literature or visuals wasn’t worth knowing, so for me, Derek really opened up my eyes to all sorts of different forms of culture.

We all used to be in his little Super-8s… Derek would ring up and be like, ‘I’ve found this derelict church, can you come and, you know, hang from the altar for me, we need to make some Super-8.’ – ‘Yeah fine Derek, see you then.’

And also he kind of knew such a mad selection of people. I met so many interesting people through him. He was a great… I’d say he was a teacher really, a lot of young people… through Derek… I mean most of us were all young gay people, there was that, but it was more than that… I mean he introduced me to people who really helped me out… I wasn’t really doing jewellery when I first met Derek and then I started doing it and he was one of the people who said, ‘You’ve got to keep doing it, I love it.’

And he was like, ‘Oh, you must meet Michael Kostiff and you must meet Andrew Logan and you know… it was kind of… he was like a phone book of generosity really. He was such a generous man. I’d end up at tea with Sir Frederick Ashton [the ballet choreographer] and you never would have thought this young funky boy in Vivienne Westwood’s rude t-shirts, having tea with Sir Fred. It was kind of mad."

Have a peep at House of Hackney's kapow wallpapers and honey bee fabrics. Bidding to shake up the staid world of British interior design, the ex-Topshop buyer Frieda Gormley and her boyfriend Javvy M Royle have turned their house (... in Hackney...) into a showroom for the latest East End take on classic English style. Nicky Haslam is coming to visit next week and Selfridges have given them a sizable space in which to re-create their wonky vision of china, chintz and overstuffed velveteen loveseats.

House of Hackney is quality kitsch. They have camped up Victoriana and executed it with the help of old school manufacturers - some that produce bed linens for Ralph Lauren and others that have provided fine china for high tea tables for generations. They got as far as a research trip to India before it dawned on them that local production is where it's at.Frieda enlisted the help of pal Celestine Cooney to style the spooky cat-girl shots.